Member Comments for the Article:

What Is Heart Disease?

Types of Cardiovascular Disease

5 Comments

Sometimes I have angina but when I go to the emergency room they say it's heart burn or reflux. Once they scheduled me for a stress test and everything came out fine. Then when I went to a community heath fair event a nurse told me that angina indicated heart problems or heart/chest contractions. With so many contradictions, how do you tell heart related angina from heart burn or reflux disease? For me that is the imperative question.
- 1/7/2016 7:18:08 AM

I have had coronary artery disease for about 20 years, and as a member of Mended Hearts I have been editor of a local chapter newsletter for over 10 years, so I have been hearing, reading and writing about heart disease for a long time.

I think the descriptions are good but I would classify the conditions differently.

Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term for heart (cardiac) disease and vascular disease.

The most common type of heart disease is coronary heart disease, also called coronary artery disease, so called because the coronary arteries are the arteries that bring blood to the heart muscle. It can lead to angina and/or heart attack. Other types of heart disease include heart failure, arrhythmias, heart valve disease, congenital heart defects, cardiomyopathies, pericarditis and coronary artery dissection.

The rest are vascular diseases. Stroke is not a type of heart disease but it has a lot in common with a heart attack. In both cases a portion of a vital organ, either the brain or the heart muscle, is deprived of oxygen due to a lack of blood flow. Aortic defects and diseases, including aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection, are not heart disease because the aorta is not part of the heart. Other vascular diseases include peripheral vascular disease and excessive blood clots.

Finally: knowledge is power. Do not be afraid. We will die. The only question is how long we can put it off. Accept that, live until you die, and be grateful for the gift of life. I could have died in a boat accident on July 28, 1978 and I am grateful for every day, every year I have lived since then. I have heart disease but a doctor told me when I was younger that I will not die of heart disease. I almost proved him right. I don't know how I will die; most of us don't know that until the very end. I plan to live to 140 or die trying.

To all of you, good health and happiness for 2013 and the rest of your life. Live long and rejoice.
- 1/3/2013 9:04:23 AM

I found this article to be very informative. I lead a very busy and stressful life due to my job.I am trying to lose twenty pounds and finding it difficult. I am spurred to continue to try after learning how critical weight loss is to our heart. Thanks for the great job you all are doing by sharing information.
- 5/12/2012 4:25:24 AM

I found this article to be very informative. I lead a very busy and stressful life due to my job.I am trying to lose twenty pounds and finding it difficult. I am spurred to continue to try after learning how critical weight loss is to our heart. Thanks for the great job you all are doing by sharing information.
- 5/12/2012 4:24:32 AM

At the time I am leaving this comment, no one else had said anything, yet. Just a guess, but I believe it is because the implications of this article are terrifying. I am no expert, but I have lived with some of these heart issues in my 54 years; and as a woman it is so easy to try to ignore symptoms, be way to busy to get informed and take better care of yourself. I had a friend tell me once, after I had given my life to God, that He had not made me "Superwoman" rather he had intended for me to take care of myself (He also gave me a brain!). I have had high blood pressure since my late teens, took medicine for it, but did little else about it, for years. Then, at age 43, I had a stroke from the high blood pressure - I also weighed 278 pounds at 5'1" and lived a sedentary lifestyle. I know God intervened or I would have been crippled for life. I got another chance. I was prescribed a second blood pressure medication and a mild tranquilizer, and lost 50 pounds (need to lose another 90) over ten years and just this last year I discovered water aerobics which are fabulous for my joints. I was an active kid - loved to run and go - who would have thought heart disease would happen to me? Please take care of yourselves, today I feel and look much older than my age and my husband is always asking what to do when I die! I am going to overcome these problems and out-live him! but I should have started years ago.
- 1/8/2012 9:11:45 PM

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